The present disclosure generally relates to pressure wave detection, and more particularly relates to profiling or diagnosis of machines or their environments using pressure waves. Pressure waves are transmitted through air, and include sound waves in the audible frequency range, as well as infrasound and ultrasound waves.
The safety of people and transportation systems is of paramount importance. Many people rely on automobile transportation as a primary means of transport. The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles reported, in statewide statistics for the calendar year 2003, that vehicle defects contributed to at least 5% of all automobile accidents. In addition, there were approximately 600 accidents reported as being attributed to tire failure and 1200 related to brake failure. Operator error and environmental conditions also affect the safety of travel. Consequently, there is a need to improve the safety of vehicles traveling on public roadways.
Safety imperatives are not confined to road based transportation. For example, infrasound data might be used to warn airplane pilots of currently undetectable and dangerous clear-air turbulence. Such technology may be useful for transportation via automobile, airplane, train and subway, where operator error, mechanical defects and/or environmental factors, if undetected, may contribute to hazardous conditions.
Safety initiatives introduced by vehicle manufacturers, public safety agencies and insurance companies generally rely on a multi-pronged approach. From a manufacturer's perspective, safety is addressed through crash avoidance mechanisms and damage mitigation. From the public safety viewpoint, controls are introduced through education campaigns, traffic monitoring and enforcement. That is, traffic authorities have mechanisms to statistically address road safety through educating and fining drivers perceived to be careless, and performing vehicle inspections or roadworthiness tests to exclude relatively dangerous equipment. Through increased insurance rates, insurance companies have another way to penalize the vehicle operators and/or owners in the years subsequent to a public safety violation. A remaining challenge is to provide effective technologies to support increased travel safety in a more direct, proactive and timely manner.
The various needs of vehicle manufacturers, owners, operators, passengers and pedestrians, as well as those of the traffic regulatory authorities, may be addressed by providing early vehicular hazard detection technologies and environmental hazard detection systems. In a typical case, an operator would not be aware of an impending vehicle failure or environmental hazard until it occurred. Through early detection, many of these impending equipment failures and/or environmental hazards may be detected, and the proximate hazardous situations may be averted.
There are a number of discrete accident prevention technologies that focus on safety from different viewpoints. Such examples of in-vehicle accident prevention technologies include automatic braking systems, networked engine diagnostics, all-wheel-drive, stability controls, tire pressure monitoring systems, and tailgating prevention mechanisms. In addition to safety, these and other technologies may have application to the maintenance, diagnosis and optimal performance of machines and their environments. These technologies may significantly boost the safety margins of under-maintained vehicles and/or relatively unskilled operators closer to the levels of well-maintained vehicles and/or highly skilled operators.
Unfortunately, each of these technologies is separate and distinct. In addition, each is burdened with its own associated additive costs and drawbacks. There are also technologies that can alert the user to impending risks by selectively playing amplified audio events according to their importance or location. Thus, it is desirable to address safety, maintenance, diagnosis and/or performance optimization of machines and their environments. What is needed is an improved method for detecting a broader range of disparate safety threats, at least some of which were heretofore difficult or impossible for even skilled operators to sense or recognize.